Multi-level interconnections for an integrated circuit chip

ABSTRACT

Multilevel metallization layouts for an integrated circuit chip including transistors having first, second and third elements to which metallization layouts connect. The layouts minimize current limiting mechanism including electromigration by positioning the connection for the second contact vertically from the chip, overlapping the planes and fingers of the metallization layouts to the first and second elements and forming a pyramid or staircase of multilevel metallization layers to smooth diagonal current flow.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to multilevel interconnection structures for integrated circuits and, more particularly, to multilevel interconnection structures which will minimize electromigration or current limiting mechanisms that result from smaller cross-section metallization and higher current.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The fabrication of integrated circuits devices is well known. They are manufactured by fabricating a plurality of active devices, such as field effect transistors (FET) with sources, drains and gates, and passive devices on and in a semiconductor wafer substrate, such as silicon. The transistors, which also can be bipolar with emitters, collectors and bases, and the passive devices are connected by a conductive material, such as metal in the form of conductive patterns. Metal, such as aluminum or copper, is used for the first and higher conductive layers or what is called BEOL (Back End of the Line). Doped polysilicon is normally used at the gate of the FET.

When electrical current flows through the metal conductive patterns or interconnections, electromigration or current limiting mechanisms due to heat may occur. These mechanisms grow increasingly severe as the cross-section of the conductive pattern is decreased along with an increase in the current. The result can be failure of one or more integrated circuits. Electromigration is due to metal atoms being pushed by the electron flow comprising the current, in proportion to the current density, and may cause a disconnection of the interconnection or an “open”. For a given current being carried by an interconnection, current density becomes larger, and thus electromigration more severe, as the cross-section of the interconnect becomes smaller with technology scaling. Electromigration is becoming an increasing problem in the BEOL of largely scaled integrated circuit chips with transistors such as FETs, such as CMOS devices, and bipolars devices. In multi-finger applications in which the layout of the devices is such that the metalization is in parallel stripes or fingers, these fingers carry significant current densities and current limiting mechanisms including electromigration are a major concern. Such devices include: power amplifiers, RF switches, I/O drivers, small analog devices operating near peak ft, devices with moderate current densities but operating at high ambient temperature (above 80° C.) or chips that develop a large amount of heat during operation, and any device with long fingers or conductive stripes corresponding to the width of, for example, a channel in a FET.

FIG. 1 shows a graph plotting exponentially the reduction of the wire cross-section with each improved technology generation in which minimum feature size is decreased. The lower plot is for (M1) (first level metal) and the higher plot is for (M2) (second level metal). As shown by the graph, the reduction of the cross-section of the wire is substantial from technology 5 to technology 10. In turn, the current capability of the wire is substantially lowered with the scaling in technology. However, current does not scale in step with the scaling in technology in the above list of applications. For example, a wireless power amplifier (PA) requiring 100 mW of output power for a particular application will be required to achieve this power regardless of the technology. When a constant power is required, the required current actually increases with downward device scaling and improvements in technology because the supply voltage (V supply) is scaled down. FIG. 2 shows this trend of DC power being routed though a minimum width wire with downward device scaling and improvement in technology. (At Technology 7 and beyond, the effect of switching the interconnect metal from aluminum to the more electromigration-resistant metal copper is shown in both FIGS. 1 and 2.) Accordingly, device scaling and technology improvements are amplifying the problem of current limiting mechanisms including electromigration for multi-finger application that carry significant current densities. This device scaling causes an increase in length of the parallel metallization stripes or fingers and a corresponding increase in current density at the end of the fingers.

Table I below is a comparison of different prior art layouts using a common technology, herein Technology 9, and without changing the gate pitch. The (M2), (M3) and (M4) in Table I are identifying the levels of metal from the wafer. The second level metal is (M2) whereas (M3) is the third level metal, and (M4) is the fourth level metal.

TABLE I MAX UNIT METAL FINGER IMPROVEMENT LAYOUT LEVELS WIDTH (μm) OVER PCELL RF PCell* 2 0.76 1.00 RF PCell, Wide Metals 2 1.33 1.75 Strap** M2 with M3 3 1.40 1.84 Strap M2 with M3, 3 2.52 3.32 wide metals Strap M2 with M3 and 4 1.68 2.21 M4 Strap M2 with M3 and 4 3.36 4.42 M4, wide metals Half-Plane*** PCell 2 0.88 1.16 Half-Plane PCell, 2 1.93 2.54 wide metals *PCell is a reference layout for a high-frequency CMOS FET. **Strapping is wiring the same current path using two or more consecutive levels of metal tied together by vias in order to increase the total cross section and carry more current. ***Half-Plane is a layout where both the source and drain are each wired to a separate plane of M2 that spans the device over half the M1 finger width.

The above Table I illustrates that, by strapping (M2) with (M3) and (M4), 3.36 um is the widest metal dimension achievable. Compared to the standard RF PCell at 0.76 um metal width and the improvement base of 1.00, this strapped prior art approach has an improvement of a factor of 4.42 over the standard PCell and was the best of all of the prior art approaches.

To operate safely with minimal current limiting mechanisms such as electromigration, a dimension limit is put on the conductive stripe or finger width, which is the wire used to connect the drain and source of a FET or to connect to the collector and emitter of a bipolar transistor. By using a larger gate pitch and wider metal lines, current densities are reduced. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that the metal width that is required can be very significant. For example, a gate finger width of 10 μm would require a (M2) (the second level of metal) width of about 5.8 μm, which requires an intolerable gate pitch to accommodate. Another approach is to strap higher levels of metal over the (M2) finger or stripe. However, the problem with this approach is that parasitic capacitance between adjacent fingers will be increased while the current capability only can be increased slightly. Also, using more metal levels may not be available or feasible in the layout. Another approach is a half-plane, which has no electromigration problems on (M2), but does on the half of the M1 that is not covered by (M2) and therefore still suffers a limit on the maximum width of (M1). Thus, the electromigration safety of the half-plane layout is limited.

Therefore, the layout approach needed in solving current limiting mechanisms including electromigration must 1) permit very long device fingers, 2) be electromigration safe for any number of levels of metals and for all available types of metals, and 3) must not increase gate pitch.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention is to provide, for an integrated circuit chip, an interconnecting metalization layout and method of manufacturing the layout to minimize current limiting mechanisms including electromigration while containing very long metal fingers.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a safe layout for current limiting mechanisms including electromigration without any constraints on the number of levels and types of metal that can be used.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a safe layout for current limiting mechanisms including electromigration without increasing the gate pitch.

The foregoing and other objects are achieved by one aspect of the integrated circuit layout having a plurality of transistors having first, second and third elements to make contact. A contact is connected to the second element at a higher vertical level than normal and the width (corresponding to the channel width of an FET) of the metal finger being wider than normal and yet the layout is current limiting or electromigration safe. If the transistor is a field effect transistor (FET), the drain contact is disposed at a higher vertical level whereas, if the transistor is a bipolar, the collector contact is disposed at higher vertical level. With the FET, a double source contact herein is used and, with the bipolar, a double emitter herein is used. By balancing the possibility of current limiting mechanisms including electromigration between the first level of metal (M1) and (M2), this layout can be optimized. It also can be further improved by employing at least third and fourth levels of metal (M3 and M4).

Another aspect of the present invention is defined as an “overlap plane” layout in which the second level metal (M2) covers the end sections of the device or chip fingers while strapped (M2) fingers are disposed at the center of the device.

A further aspect of the present invention is a pyramid or stair case layout in which the dimensions of the M1-M4 metals are such that the current flows smoothly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a log-scale graph plotting (M1) and (M2) wire cross-sections in square microns (um²) versus generation of device technology.

FIG. 2 is a log-scale graph plotting the maximum DC power per metal (M1) and (M2) wire in milliwatts (mW) versus generation of device technology.

FIG. 3 PRIOR ART is a cross-sectional view illustrating the half-plane layout of the prior art.

FIG. 4 PRIOR ART is a plan view illustrating the half-plane layout of the prior art.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating one aspect of the present invention with double sided contacts for the source and drain and with the vertical drain in a plane above the device.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-section view illustrating the vertical drain of the present invention extending up from the wafer to a plane above the device.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the vertical drain aspect of the present invention in which the source finger's metallization consists of multiple levels of metal, with each successive level staggered or offset to optimize current flow for the safest design against current limiting mechanisms including electromigration.

FIG. 8 is a plan view illustrating the vertical drain aspect of the present invention in which the elevated drain is covering the entire device except for the edges at which a comb-shaped metallization is disposed to allow the source metallization to strap the source lines.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention in which a wide (M2) plane are disposed at the edges of the device and source/drain (M2) fingers are disposed at the center, with the proportion of wide (M2) plane and (M2) fingers optimized for maximum safe current flow.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged plan view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention in which the (M2) device fingers are interleaved.

FIG. 11 is a cross-section view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention with a pyramid-type or stair case multi-level metallization.

FIG. 12 is a plan view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention with reduction of the half-plane to permit a comb of strapped source/drain fingers in the center.

FIG. 13 is a plan view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention with a single source/drain metallization disposed over half of a very wide finger device and duplicated in mirror image and abutted fashion until the full finger width is covered.

FIG. 14 is a plan view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention with the finger device of FIG. 12 covered by mirror image source/drain metallization.

FIG. 15 is a plan view illustrating the overlap plane aspect of the present invention implemented in a recursive fashion.

FIG. 16 is a log-scale graph plotting the maximum finger width versus the backend drain-to-source capacitance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

A conventional method of forming a conductive pattern for connecting devices of integrated circuit chip comprises depositing a conductive layers on the chip substrate separated by insulating layers (not shown). As shown in the half-plane cross-sectional layout of FIG. 3, a wafer 10 includes devices with, herein, sources 11 and gates 12. A number of vias 13 connect the sources and drains to the first level of source metal (M1) 14 and drain metal (M1) (not shown). Only half of this number of vias 15 connect source (M1) to the second level of metal (M2) 16, which spans half the width of metal (M1) 14. Thus, the name of this layout is “half-plane”. The gate is via connected to its (M1) metal 17. In these FIGs and the remaining FIGS illustrating cross-sectional and plan views, the spaces between vias and metal lines is insulation, such as silicon oxide, which is not shown. The drain (M2) finger 18 is connected to (M1) (not shown) and to the drain (not shown). Wiring of this device or integrated circuit to other devices or integrated circuits fabricated on the same wafer may be accomplished using additional metal levels, such as (M3) and (M4).

As further illustrated in FIG. 4 PRIOR ART, the source (M2) half-plane 19 is side by side with the drain half-plane 20 at (M2). Vias 13 are connected to source (M1) but only to half of (M1) source plane as established by the vias 13. The same is true of the drain plane (M2) 20 in that only half of the (M1) drain plane is connected to the (M1) drain plane as again established by the vias 14. Wide corresponding to channel length) FET sources and drains (or, equivalently, bipolar emitters and collectors) supply more current and thus require more metal to avoid the effects of electromigration. This sets a limit on the maximum width for the source and drain regions covered solely by (M1). The remaining half of each finger is strapped with a (M2) metal plane, which combines with (M1) to carry the remaining current. Even by maximizing the width of the (M1) fingers, the half-plane layout only provides an improvement in maximum unit finger width of about 2.5 times over the base RF PCell.

Now, in accordance of one aspect of the present invention as illustrated in FIGS. 5-8, the interconnection structure employs a double source contact to double the structure's finger width. Since the drain cannot be connected out at the end of the fingers due to the presence of the source connections, the drain connection is routed vertically above to a plane covering the device and, hence is termed a “vertical drain” layout. Since routing source and drain from the same side would create parasitics, only the source is routed at both ends. The drain is taken out vertically, as best illustrated by a combination of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, in which a wafer 30 contains FETs with sources 31, drains 32, and gates 33. A via (V0) 34 connects the source 31 to first level source metal (M1) 35 which, in turn, connects the source to the second level source metal (M2) 36 through a via (V1) 37. The ends of source M1 35 and M2 36 extend to the opposite ends of the FET device in the wafer. The drain connections, as best illustrated in FIG. 6, comprise a drain via (V0) 39 in contact with the drain 32 in the wafer 30. These vias 39 connects the drain 32 to the drain's third level of metal (M3) 40, which is in a plane above the entire device through drain (M1) 41, drain via (V1) 42, drain (M2) 43 and drain via (V2) 44.

The vertical drain aspect of the present invention can be improved by (a) widening the metal wires; (b) using strapping (M3)45 and (M4) 47 over the source at the edges of the device; and using drain (M4) 46 (FIG. 7) for the drain connection at other than the edges of the device. As shown in FIG. 7, source (M3) 45 reduces the peak current in source (M2) 36 as (M2) crosses the gate 33. Source (M4) 46 is added to further reduce the peak current density. The edges closest to the device for metal levels (M3) 45 and (M4) 46 are increasingly set back in order to form a staircase pattern, encouraging smooth current flow and uniform current density in the transition between metal levels. Only three vias 48 of source level (M4) are used over the device since the drain (M4) 47 would otherwise develop electromigration problems at the edges of the device.

FIG. 8 shows the plan view of the (M4) level of metallization. The drain level (M4) 47 of metallization covers the entire device area, as illustrated by a dashed line 49, except for the edges 47 a, which are in the shape of a comb-like structure to allow the source (M4) 46 metallization to strap the source lines. The division between the elevated drain metal plane and the edge source metal comb is determined by optimizing for maximum electromigration resistance. The exact position of partition between the plane-like and comb-like shape for drain (M4) 47 is designed to maximize electromigration-safe current carrying capability in the source and drain wiring. An electromigration safe or limit on an interconnection layout is defined, for example, as approximately 5 mA per square micron of cross sectional area in copper at 100° C. The parallel lines across the drain (M4) metallization represent the gates 33 of the FETs. The vertical drain aspect of the present invention provides an improvement over the base PCell of almost 4.5 times for the standard width wires and over 9.5 times for the wide width wires.

Another aspect of the present invention is referred to as an “overlap plane” and is illustrated starting at FIG. 9. In the prior art half-plane, as shown in FIG. 3 PRIOR ART, the electromigration problem is in the (M1) finger 14 that runs underneath the (M2) half-plane 16. The overlap plane of the present invention solves this problem by shifting the inner edge towards the outer edge of the overlapping plane 50 a and adding a strapping finger 50 b in the center of the (M1) finger. As shown in FIG. 9, strapping fingers 54 are added in the center of the (M1) finger 51. Also shown in FIG. 9 is the wafer 52 with a source 52 a, gates 53, vias 54 and drain plane (M2) 55. If the finger 50 b in the center is sufficiently long, then the electromigration problem is solved in the (M1) finger but electromigration becomes a problem for the (M2) finger. By balancing the size of the (M1) and (M2) fingers, this problem is minimized. This balance is achieved by setting the width of the (M1)-only region to the width at which the current collected from that finger width is equal to the maximum electromigration-safe current of (M1). The width of the region strapped by (M1) and (M2) is such that the current collected by the combined (M1)-only and (M1) plus (M2) strapped portions of the finger is equal to the maximum electromigration-safe current of a (M1) finger strapped by an (M2) finger. Finally, the width of the region beneath the solid (M2) plane is such that the current collected by the total finger width (from a channel dimension standpoint) is equal to the maximum electromigration-safe current of (M1) plus the (M2) plane.

As shown in FIG. 10, the overlap plane approach of the present invention is formed with a wide (M2) source plane 56 and a wide (M2) drain plane 57 at the edges of the device with narrow source (M2) fingers 58 interleaved with narrow drain (M2) fingers 59 extending to the center of the device. A further improvement is made in the overlap plane layout of the present invention by strapping (M1) and (M2) fingers with metal and widening the metal lines.

FIG. 11 illustrates another aspect of the present invention, which can be employed to improve the overlap plane approach. This improvement is achieved by forming the overlap plane with (M3) fingers 60 and (M4) fingers 61 as illustrated in FIG. 11. This aspect of the present invention is referred to as a “pyramid” or stair step layout in that wide overlap planes (M2) 63 a, (M3) 64 a and (M4) 65 a connect to the narrower fingers (M2) 63 b and 66, (M3) 64 b and 60, and (M4} 65 b and 61. Also shown in FIG. 11 is the drain planes (M2) 67, (M3) 68 and (M4) 69 along with the wafer 52 with source 52 a and vias 54. The gates are not shown. Because of the pyramid structure, the diagonal current flows from the wide overlap into the narrower fingers in the center of the device. This pyramid aspect of the present invention, when used with the layout of the overlap plane aspect of the present invention, resulted in the lowest peak current density and a reduction in capacitance.

The maximum finger widths that can be achieved by the aforementioned implementation may not be sufficient for some applications. Also, if better electromigration resistance is required, the finger width should be below the number for maintaining maximum current and less than the threshold for electromigration safe operation. As stated previously, an electromigration safe limit on an interconnection layout is, herein, approximately 5 mA per square micron of cross sectional area in copper at 100° C. The overlap plane aspect of the present invention as described above contains source and drain contacts above the device in the form of (M2) metal planes. As a result, a wider finger device can be formed by abutting several short blocks, each of which is electromigration safe. In this approach, the source and drain lines at the top layer of the layout form alternating regions or fingers of (M2) which are akin to the (M1) source and drain fingers but much wider and oriented at right angles. Such a structure may then be considered analogous to the original FET being wired, with the overlap plane approach applied recursively using the next higher levels of available interconnect metal. Since the pitch of the (M2) stripes being contacted is greater than that of the original source and drain pitch, wider vias and thus wider and thicker metal may be employed, such as double-thickness metal (M1 2B) and (M2 2B). These double thickness metals are labeled (M1) and (M2) but the (2B) indicates that (M1) is the first metal of double thickness and (M2) is the second metal of double thickness. They do not replace the (M1) and (M2) of single thickness but are additional metal planes or fingers.

In FIG. 12, a plan view shows the overlap plane layout with gates 53 and source plane (M2) 56 connecting (M1) source fingers (not shown) through vias 54, and drain plane (M2)57 connecting (M1) drain fingers (not shown). The (M2) source fingers 58 and (M2) drain fingers 59 are strapped to (M1) (not shown) through vias 54 in the center of the block. Using this layout as a single source/drain metallization block with a very wide finger device, as illustrated in FIG. 13, the block can supply the source and drain current without any electromigration problems for the device area. As shown in FIG. 14, the remaining half of the device fingers are covered with another source/drain metallization block and, herein, is a mirror image. Each of the two blocks handles the source and drain current of the area that it covers. As a further optimization of the overlap plane aspect of the present invention, recursive application of the overlap plane layout permits using the (M1 2B) and (M2 2B) metallizations and helps maximize the number of fingers that can be placed in parallel. Metal (M2) in the device of FIG. 14 is now treated as analogous to the source and drain of an FET or the emitter and collector of a bipolar transistor and the scheme of FIG. 14 repeated, with (M1 2B) and (M2 2B) substituted for references to (M1) and (M2). Since the pitch of (M1 2B) and (M2 2B) is now larger than the original pitch of (M1) and (M2), these metal levels may be thicker (e.g. double thickness) and thus contribute further toward high current capability.

Table II below compares the different layouts of the present invention with the PCell with a base improvement of 1.00. All of the layout aspects of the present invention, which are “overlap plane” “pyramid” and “vertical drain”, range from over 3 times to over 9.5 times improvement in comparison to the PCell.

TABLE II Max Unit Wide Metal Finger Improvement Layout Metal Levels Cds* Width** over PCell RF PCell No 2 348 0.76 1.00 Overlap Plane No 375 2.52 3.32 Overlap Plane, Yes 2 595 3.64 4.79 strap M1/M2 Overlap Plane, Yes 2 612 3.92 5.16 strap M2/M3 Overlap Plane, Yes 3 830 4.48 5.89 strap M1/M2 and M3/M4 Pyramid, M1–M3 Yes 3 545 3.92 5.16 Pyramid, M1–M4 Yes 4 659 4.76 6.26 Vertical Drain No 4 574 3.36 4.42 Vertical Drain, Yes 4 720 7.28 9.58 wide metal lines* *Wide metal lines refers to using maximum width lines that satisfy the ground rules without changing gate pitch. Normal wires are 0.14 um whereas wide wires are 0.28 um.

Finally, FIG. 16 is a log-scale graph plotting finger width (um) versus backend source to drain capacitance of some of the prior art layouts and the layout aspects of the present invention. A dashed line separates the two and illustrates the wide finger width (corresponding to channel width) capability of all of the inventive layouts in contrast to the prior art layouts. The layout points on the graph are identified by the first letter of the name of the layout. They are as follows:

Standard PCell S Metal1 (M1) Only M Half-Plane H Overlap-Plane O Pyramid Overlap P Vertical Drain V

Although this invention has been described relative to specific embodiments for purposes of understanding, it will be realized that alterations and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the following claims. Therefore, the present embodiments, such as to FET transistors, are to be considered as illustrative and not restricted, and the invention is not be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the following claims. 

1. In an integrated circuit device having transistors and interconnecting metallization to minimize current limiting mechanisms including electromigration comprising: a plurality of transistors having first, second and third elements; interconnecting metal wires of a number of a number of levels including metal level one (M1), metal level two (M2), metal level three (M3) and metal level four )M4), and interlevel vias for connecting separately first and second elements; and a pyramid or staircase multi-level metallization with wide M2, M3 and M4 overlap metalization planes at the ends of the device and normal finger metallization M1, M2, M3 and M4 at the center so as to smooth the diagonal current flow from the wide overlap planes into the narrower fingers in the center of the device.
 2. The integrated circuit device of claim 1 wherein wide metal two (M2) source and drain fingers for FET transistors are positioned in the same orientation as the layout of the FET transistors.
 3. The integrated circuit chip of claim 1 wherein the interconnecting wires for said second elements of the transistors are at a higher vertically level than said interconnecting wires of said first elements of the transistors.
 4. The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein electromigration is balanced between said metal one (M1) and metal two (M2).
 5. The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein the width of metal one (M1) is set to the width at which the current collected from the finger width is equal to the electromigration safe current of metal one (M1).
 6. The integrated circuit chip of claim 1 in which the interconnecting metallization of the pyramid overlap layout is formed with four levels of metal and is electromigration safe at a maximum unit finger width of about 4.76 mu.
 7. In an integrated circuit chip having transistors and interconnecting metallization to minimize current limiting mechanisms including electromigration comprising: a plurality of transistors, each having first, second and third elements for making contact; and interconnecting metal wires including via metal of a plurality of levels and width dimension for connecting said first, second and third elements of said transistors to said metal wires at different levels and labeled metal one (M1), metal two (M2) to provide connections to the transistors, said interconnecting wires including metal fingers and metal planes disposed in the center and at the edges of the chip, wherein electromigration is balanced between said metal one (M1) and metal two (M2).
 8. In an integrated circuit chip having transistors and interconnecting metallization to minimize current limiting mechanisms including electromigration comprising: a plurality of transistors, each having first, second and third elements for making contact; and interconnecting metal wires including via metal of a plurality of levels and width dimension for connecting said first, second and third elements of said transistors to said metal wires at different levels and labeled metal one (M1), metal two (M2) to provide connections to the transistors, said interconnecting wires including metal fingers and metal planes disposed in the center and at the edges of the chip, said interconnecting metal wires including a third level (M3) and a fourth level (M4) and the metal wires are wide and electromigration safe at a maximum unit finger width of about 7.28 mu. 